Stacy
I hated getting to sessions so close to the time they were supposed to happen, but I was chalking it up to the fact that it was a last-minute scheduling.
“How are you?” I addressed Sam, whose whole face was a light shade of pink. “The client isn’t upset, is she? Is she here?”
Sam let out an awkward chuckle. “Uh. So, here’s the thing. It’s not a she. It’s a he, and he is stunning.”
I turned my head and looked into the studio and saw a guy sitting on one of the yoga mats with his head down, flicking through his phone. I couldn’t make out much of his image the way he was situated, but I could at least verify that it wasn’t a woman.
“Is he that good looking?” I thought back to my ex-boyfriend, Peter Clouse, who I ended up splitting with because he was pursuing his acting and modeling career. He was pretty much my benchmark for a good looking man. The typical tall, dark, and handsome type, who seemed perfect in every way but was really emotionally stunted and more concerned about his career than me.
“Well, I guess I’ll be the judge of that.” I set my purse on the desk and smiled. “You can head out if you want.”
Sam shook her head. “Oh, uh. No, it’s okay. I can stay.” Her eyes were already slowly gliding over to look at the client again. “You might need help.”
“I won’t need help.” I crossed my arms. “Really. You’ve been here all day, so you can go.”
Sam’s daydreaming expression left her face, leaving irritation in its wake. She grabbed her things and stood up, grumbling. “I’m the one who sat here all day, and now you get to stay and hang out with the beautiful guy.” She walked past me. “Must be nice!”
“Goodbye!” I spat at her.
Once Sam was out, I locked the door behind her. I didn’t want anyone walking in while I didn’t have my attention on the entryway, and once the private session was over, I could just let the client out. I turned off the sign saying we were open and took down the shades before finally turning and walking into the studio.
“I apologize for being a little late.” I immediately walked over to my mat and set my workout bag down. “I came straight from my parents’ house. I hope you haven’t been waiting too long.”
“Not at all.” His voice was husky and low and caused me to look up from my bag.
If there had been music playing, it would have done a movie-like screech to a stop. Sam told no lies. The man looking back at me was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. He had a young-looking face, younger than I imagined he actually was. His cheekbones sat high on his face and were perfect mountains for the snow of freckles that were sprinkled across them. He looked at me through a pair of obsidian eyes that, despite their lack of color, were still vibrant and welcoming, especially with the wisps of his feathery black hair hanging down into them. I allowed my eyes to trail down his form, seeing his arms stretching the fabric of the t-shirt he was wearing to their full capacity and the very noticeable way his sweatpants poked away from his body at the crotch before closing in again on his legs. He was tall, but not obnoxiously so, and even at his height, he carried his shoulders in front of himself, keeping him hunched and a little shorter than he might be if he stood with his chin in the air.
When his mouth curled into a quiet smile, my heart skipped a beat. He stuck out a hand. “Are you Stacy?”
I stood up from my bag, taking his hand in mine. “Yes. I. Am. Stacy. She is me.” What the hell was wrong with me all of a sudden? I’d seen the name Molly Varasso on my appointment log, and Sam wasn’t prepared for a man, either. “You are not Molly.”
“No,” the man chuckled, “Molly is my sister-in-law. Sorry about that. I guess she didn’t think to mention the appointment was for me. I’m Gabriel.”
“Nice to meet you, Gabriel.”
His cheeks got a little darker, and it was one of the cutest things I’d ever seen. I’d never seen a guy blush before. “I was going to say you can call me Gabe, but the way Gabriel sounded when you said it was so good. I’d like to stick with that.”
It was my cheeks that I felt warming now. “Gabriel it is, then.”
His hand flocked to the back of his head to rub with nervousness, which was flying around his aura like a swarm of bees. “I also must admit that I’ve never done yoga before, or exercise of any kind, really.”
I ticked my head to the side. “I find that hard to believe.” Gabriel’s eyes widened, and my hands slapped against my mouth. “Oh my god, I’m so embarrassed. I did not mean to say that out loud.”
Typically, I found flirting with men difficult, but I was suddenly challenged by keeping myself from flirting.
Gabriel put his hands up in surrender. “Hey, I’ll take that kind of compliment from someone like you any day.”
It was all so easy, like playing a match in a sport we were both skilled at. I’d only been in the same room with this man for less time than I’d spent in a fast-food drive-through, yet I felt like I’d developed a better rapport with him than most of the people I’d met in my life.
“Well, should we get started?” I asked, desperate to ground myself in something that was supposed to come naturally to me.
“Yeah. Sorry in advance for sucking.” Gabriel walked back over to the mat that Sam had no doubt laid out for him. I followed him closely, walking directly into the waft of a woodland cologne he was wearing, making me fuzzy. He stood atop the mat and turned around, jumping a bit when I was right next to him. “Oh, there you are.”
I smiled. “Yeah. You said you never did this before, so it’s probably going to have to be guided yoga.”
“Guided,” Gabriel repeated. “As in you will touch me.”